The best of anime: 2018

Best anime of 2018

1. [Winter 2017/18] A Place Further than the Universe
2. [Fall 2018] Bunny Girl Senpai

Honorable mentions:

• [Winter 2017/18] Yuru Camp
• [Spring 2018] Hisone & Masotan
• [Spring 2018] Hinamatsuri
• [Fall 2018] Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 5 (still airing)

This list was incredibly easy to make. Throughout the year I tried to give everything a chance, ending up covering forty series, including all of the ones people seemed to like on reddit. In the end, this year had many good shows I could recommend, but only two stood out as truly great: A Place Further than the Universe and Bunny Girl Senpai.

Spring 2018 rankings: impressions

Wanted to just jot down my ranks for various anime this season, since I’m watching a ton of series. Not going to put much detail into any of these…

1. Hinamatsuri (3 eps): 9/10
   Biased from my love for this series. I’m just as excited about the recently-announced US release of the manga, though!
2. Hisone to Maso-tan (2 eps): 9/10
   This has been the shock of the season for me. What an amazing first two episodes. Bravo, Bones. Also, the best ED this season.
3. Tadakoi (3 eps): 9/10
   Despite an overdone premise and characters that are far too over-the-top, it’s so creative with its storytelling, legitimately funny with its parodies and execution of even telegraphed jokes (Nyanko Big’s face gets me every time), and really sweet when it comes to romance.
4. Saiki Kusuo S2 (14 eps): 9/10
5. Megalo Box (3 eps): 8/10
   It’s been great so far, but only 1 cour for a sports anime is pretty rough.
6. My Hero Academia S3 (3 eps): 8/10
   This is gonna go up. There’s no way this season can be bad with the content it’s going to cover.
7. Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These – Encounter (3 eps): 7/10
8. Wotakoi (2 eps): 6/10
9. Golden Kamuy (3 eps): 6/10
   A 9/10 story meets a 1/10 animation studio. The worst part is seeing people defending the CG fire and bears. Go see your optometrist. Good lord.
10. Izekaya Nobu (2 eps): 6/10
    Can’t tell if this is better in anime or manga form. Pretty average either way, though.
11. Full Metal Panic! Invisible Victory (2 eps): 5/10
    It’s been a long, long time. The whole feel of this show seems… retro and behind the times. It doesn’t seem like such an old formula will be able to stand with the heavy hitters this season.
12. Darling in the FranXX (15 eps): 4/10
    The characters of this show piss me off to no end. It’s a crappy knock-off of Eureka Seven with unlikeable characters, uninteresting world building, and a feeling that everything that happens is utterly pointless. Just sticking with it because it’s the most popular thing right now.
13. Mahou Shoujo Site (3 eps): 4/10 (dropped)
14. Mahou Shoujo Ore (3 eps): 4/10 (dropped)

Still need to watch:

• Steins;Gate 0
• Gegege no Kitaro

Maybe:

• Sword Art Online – Gun Gale Online
• Lupin III: Part 5

Spring 2018 anime predictions, premonitions, and precognitions

It’s been a while since I’ve watched seasonal shows (Winter 2018 has been the first time in… 6 years? 7?). It just so happens that next season has a bunch of adaptations of manga I’ve loved and a ton of high profile sequels too. I figure that even though some of these are bound to flop, it’s an important time to record down the hype I’m feeling at the moment.

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